Truffle salt is expensive but well worth it. I found some at Market Place in Rockridge. I ended up making a fresh slightly seared ahi tuna salad with fresh heirloom tomatoes and aged balsamic vinegar. I then got a fresh white fish (I forget the name) and lightly seared it topping it off with fresh truffle salt, and a side of pan fried blood orange olive oil, balsamic vinegar, purple corn, and fava beans. Delicious meal.

I've been away for a long time but I will try and be better about posting. I guess I'm also curious about who will be actually reading this.

So without further ado here is my first official entry for 2007. I will be posting more detailed accounts of some of these excursions that I have failed to mention shortly.

Adeline's Louisiana Kitchen.

It is a fairly new restaurant on Shattuck by Bancroft, right next to Beckett's. I have to say that this is the restaurant that got me to remember why I started this blog in the first place. This is the closest to authentic Nawlins gumbo as I can remember. It was a shame that ever since Crescent City Cafe closed down on Haight street, the bay area was without any decent gumbo. I've been searching for a while but now I can say that whenever I get a craving for good gumbo, I can count on Adeline's. From what I gather, the chef is from Baton Rouge. I've also sampled their jambalaya, and although it is completely different than any other jambalaya that I've had, it was very delicious. It was much more tomatoey than others but it had good texture and consistency. Their shrimp po'boys are also great, with crisp and flavorful battered shrimp with pickles and lettuce between nicely toasted bread. Also try the beignets. Light but be prepared to split them, since 4 to an order is way more than any person can, or should, handle.

The only negatives would be that it can tend to be a little pricey. However, I fully support slightly higher prices for quality and I fully support supporting a little Cajun place in Berkeley that could easily be overlooked. Check it out because the food and surprisingly the service is all excellent.

Sorry about the HUGE gap in posts. December turned out to be very busy due to testing for my 3rd degree black belt, finishing work projects for the year, then the holidays. Now 2007 has brought in many new memories and now 2 new puppies, Nick and Nora. I will be posting what I remember from December and beyond. Stay tuned!

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Palm Springs. Here is the lowdown on the food there.

For Thanksgiving Dinner we had a good meal at LG's steakhouse. Courtney wanted at least something that reminded her of Thanksgiving so the mashed potatoes would do the trick. We had Cesar salad made at our table, which was good, though I think they used prepackaged grated Parmesan cheese, and I always prefer huge slices of fresh parm for my salad. Courtney had Filet Mignon while I had the Rib eye. The Rib eye had more flavor than the filet though nothing is quite as good as HOPR still. Their sides were nothing to write home about either, the mashed potatoes were eeh, the mushrooms were mushrooms, and the green beans tasty dirty and underdone. The wine was okay but WAY overpriced.

The next day was a complete turnaround. We started out at the Cafe Des Beaux-Arts which had one of the best french onion soups that I have had. The soup consisted of real stringy cheese with a rich onion flavor that had a strong garlic base. The rest of the meal was okay. I had mussels mariniere that didn't have much flavor. For dinner we tried out Zin, which was recommended on Chowhound. That was our best meal in PS. We started out with a duck foie gras with apples and figs that was simply delicious. I had the cream of wild mushroom soup with truffle oil while Courtney had the french onion soup, which was nowhere near the previous FO soup. I ended the meal with a Kobe Sirloin with haricot verts (the real way green beans should be) and peas and carrots, both delicious. To top it off I had one of the best Zins, a 2001 L'aventure Zinfandel from Paso Robles. If you can find it, get it.

I finally got around to adding this item. B is for Taco at Taco's Barajito located on West Grand and Adeline. It looked really promising and as usual I had the Al Pastor and the Carne Asada tacos. I'd have to say that both were really lackluster and didn't really have anything special to write home about. The al pastor was niether sweet nor sour and the carne asada didn't have much flavor at all. Typical prices but not worth your time or money.

So after searching for a while, I have finally found my "A" truck. I will be doing a series of taco truck taste tests going alphabetically in order (of course ignoring the moniker taco, taqueria, el, or la, or similar participles). I will be mainly trying out the al pastor (if they have it) and the carne asada. Now onto "A"

Tacos Alonzo is located on Foothill Blvd in Oakland about 4 blocks from Fruitvale Ave. The service was very friendly. The tacos were above average with good flavor in both the al pastor and the carne asada. One great perk was that I was given extra salsa and a fire roasted jalapeno as well. Nothing to write home about but if you are in the area and want that extra jalapeno with your taco, then I would recommend it.

Before having a chowdown dinner at Kang Tong Degi, Peter and I went for part 2 of the pojangmacha crawl. We opted for the Korean bacon and sirloin which we grilled at our table. Instead of the usual lettuce wraps, we were treated to a type of wide flat short noodle instead. It was chewy goodness. The Korean bacon was light and tender. The sirloin was not as tasty but still adequate. You could either wrap it in the noodle or dip it into sesame seed oil, or a spicy mixture. Bacon, Beef, Noodles, Beer, and Soju. What more could you ask for?

What tasty treats will I have in store during the chowdinner? Stay tuned.

Surprisingly enough Golden Gate Park Golf Course has really good BBQ. I opted for the Pulled Pork brisket sandwich. The meat was really tender and the sauce was slightly sweet but not overpowering. The bread did not get watered down. The weather was also perfect for a BBQ. Overall a very tasty sandwich.

After coming back from Korea, one would think that Korean food would be the last thing that I would want, but it was. It only spurred on my fervor to seek out authentic Korean food in the Bay Area. My friend Peter and I checked out this local hot spot popular with the Korean exchange students that go to UC Berkeley. It was once called KoKo House, but the owners were caught one too many times serving alcohol to minors, so it shut down. It was closed for a while, but then OB Oriental BBQ Chicken house opened it's dimly lit doors.

Like many other Korean drinking/eating places (Pojangmachas), the menu differs from regular Korean restaurant fare by concentrating on Korean "pub food". Since chicken is its specialty, the menu was heavy on ... BBQ chicken dishes. I ordered the Fire Chicken, while Peter ordered the Seafood mixed Fire Chicken (same dish but with calamari, clams, and shrimp). I'd have to say that this is one of THE spiciest meals that I've ever had! Peter first started to make fun of me by saying that my tolerance had gone down, however 2 more bites into his meal he was complaining as well, comparing it to one his mother's super spicy Vietnamese peppers.

The chicken was very tender and whatever flavor was left after the spiciness numbed your taste buds, was not too sweet and pretty delicious. It was hard to judge, so I will have to be back and order the mild to better assess the food. However, the extra pitcher of beer to cool our tongues and the general atmosphere did make for a pleasant dining/drinking experience. Time for a Pojangmacha crawl to see which one will reign supreme!